~ The unlikely saga of a middle-aged mom of twin second-graders and an Athena triathlete ~

Monday, March 20, 2006

Finally Spring!

Hooray for spring! Finally it arrives today!

I'm PSYCHED! And looking forward to some warmer weather! A chickadee has been hanging around my birdhouse outside - maybe we'll have some new chicks in the family!

We're entering our 12th week of training this year. Eleven weeks are now in the workout logs, for better or worse. Are you where you want to be?

I am! I feel great!

My swimming is progressing nicely and I'm actually enthusiastic about getting in the pool these days! I learn something new every time.

My cycling needs a LOT more mileage and some hillwork, but that will come once the weather improves. The extra daylight will REALLY help here because now I can even get in a bike ride in the mornings.

My running is at maintenance levels, which is just fine. I'm at a good place where I can go out and run 3 or 5 or 10 miles at a comfortable pace and not feel too exhausted by it. Nothing hurts, and I feel fairly solid at it. My speed has been inching upwards when I race because my body composition is changing (always way, way too slowly, but it is changing) and my endurance is increasing because of consistency in getting in the mileage and the cross-training, not because of extra speedwork.

My first triathlon of the year - an Olympic distance - is in nine weeks. A 1500m swim is starting to feel like a reasonably short distance, although I'm not looking forward to plunging into icy cold water again. That's a new attitude toward the distance though, for sure! 25 miles on the bike is a nice length for a ride, though this one is over some hellacious hills. It's time to swap out my gear cluster to add a new granny gear for that. The 10K at the end has some of the steepest hills in the area, so it's a tough one. But last year I was thinking about the race with a mixture of fear and dread, and this year I'm looking forward to race day with more confidence and anticipating how much I can improve in my performance.